Doesn't charge anything other than Apple devices. Expensive for its capacity.

Bottom Line

The Mophie Juice Pack Boost gives your iPad or iPod an extra charge, but there's better value for money on the battery market.

Made for iPhones and iPads—and nothing else!—the Mophie Juice Pack Boost is a handy little extra battery which can give your iDevice just a bit more charge. While it's slim and well-designed, we find it lacking in power and flexibility compared to other recharging options.

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The Boost is a light (2.5 oz), petite (2.2 by 3.9 by .37" HWD) little rectangle that comes in black and red soft-touch plastic. It feels like a premium device, and at $49.95, it costs more than comparable 2000mAh batteries. It charges quickly using an included MicroUSB cable, but it doesn't come with a power adapter; you have to plug it into your PC's USB port, or use your iPod/iPhone's adapter to charge it. Pressing a battery-check button on the right hand side lights up four green LEDs to show how charged the device is.

The battery should give you more than a full charge for an iPod touch or iPhone. I plugged it into an iPad 1 (4.5 stars) running our standard test, and got an extra hour and 48 minutes of video playback time, a little below what I expected from the 2000mAh capacity.

The Boost falls short when considered against its competition, though. At the single-charge-for-a-phone level, we'd suggest looking into charging cases instead. Mophie's own Juice Pack Plus ($99.95) has the same capacity, but builds it into a case, so you're never without your spare battery.

In terms of a separate battery, the Energizer XP4001 ($49.95, 3.5 stars) costs $10 more than the Boost, but offers double the capacity at 4000mAh. Our Editor's Choice, the Sanyo eneloop Mobile Booster (4 stars), meanwhile, costs $79.95 but delivers 5000mAh of power in an elegant white oval case.

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About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 13 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, hosts our One Cool Thing daily Web show, and writes opinions on tech and society.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer. Other than ... See Full Bio

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